Connecting with your audience is objective number one for any website. Findability—the discipline of helping users discover the content they seek—not only helps businesses get their message out, but it improves the user experience, too. The secret to attaining findability bliss, both with search engines and beyond, lies in the wisdom of web standards.

1. May 5, 2009
An Event Apart Seattle, WA

2. slideshare.net/aarron
delicious.com/tag/
findabilitybliss

3. @aarron

5. Findability

7. 3
simple goals

8. find your site

9. find stuff in your site

10. rediscover your site

11. Beyond SEO

12. the common thread

14. Findability is not ...

16. Findability is ...

20. Content

22. great content +
web standards =

23. great content +
web standards =
findability bliss

24. The Standards
Connection
Semantic Markup: machine readable
Accessibility: legible to search engines
Progressively Enhance: remove barriers
Microformats: re-discoverable

25. Semantic Message

27. “Aboutness”

28. Position Keywords

30. <title>

32. <h1>

34. <h2>
&
friends

36. <strong>
&
<em>

38. <a ...>here</a>

40. title=“here”

42. alt=“here”

43. More Keyword
Placement
Your URL
Logo file name
Naturally in your content (<= 7%)

44. <h1 id=quot;logoquot; title=”description”>
Site or Organization Name
</h1>
/* css */
#logo {
text-indent: -9999px;
background: url(image.gif);
width: 200px;
height: 25px;
}
image replacement

45. mezzoblue.com/tests/revised-image-replacement/

46. Bad Karma?

47. mezzoblue.com/archives/2008/05/05/image_replac/

48. apple.com

49. Keyword Research?

50. WWMD?

51. delicious.com

52. adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal

53. Check Your Work

54. Ranks.nl

55. Ranks.nl

56. Sensational-SEO.com/

57. Sensational-SEO.com/

58. Find Your
Competitors

59. Accessible Message

60. present the entire message

61. <img src=quot;logos.gifquot; alt=quot;Client logosquot; />
<a href=quot;#footnotequot; title=quot;Image
descriptionquot;>about this image</a>
<div id=quot;footnotequot;>
<h4>Our Clients Include … </h4>
<ul>
<li> Yahoo! </li>
<li> John Deere </li>
<li> CNN </li>
…
</ul>
</div>
description link

62. <acronym title=quot;Web Content
Accessibility Guidelinesquot;>
WCAG
</acronym>
<abbr title=quot;Georgiaquot;>GA</abbr>
anticipate search behaviors

63. What about
JavaScript?

64. Ajax Pitfalls

65. Ajax Pitfalls

66. Progressively
Enhance

67. make it work without JavaScript support

68. http://www.udm4.com/
navigation can’t rely on JavaScript

69. What About Ajax?

70. Ajax Problems
No unique URL
JavaScript required to load
Not search engine friendly

71. Ajax Solutions
Don’t use it for mission
critical content
Use the Hijax Approach
Fetch content server-side

72. Portable Content is
Re-discoverable

74. <div id=quot;hcard-John-Stewartquot;
class=quot;vcardquot;>
<span class=quot;fnquot;>John Stewart</span>
<div class=quot;orgquot;>The Daily Show</div>
<div class=quot;adrquot;>
<div class=quot;street-addressquot;>123 Some
Street</div>
<span class=quot;localityquot;>New York</span>,
<span class=quot;regionquot;>NY</span>,
<span class=quot;postal-codequot;>12345</span>
<span class=quot;country-namequot;>USA</span>
</div>
</div>
hCard microformat

75. soupstudios.com/contact/

76. <div id=quot;hcalendar-An-Event-Apartquot;
class=quot;veventquot;>
<a href=quot;http://aneventapart.comquot;
class=quot;urlquot;><abbr
title=quot;2009-05-04T09:00-05:0000quot;
class=quot;dtstartquot;>May 4th 9am</abbr> :
<abbr title=quot;2009-05-05T20:00-05:00quot;
class=quot;dtendquot;>5th 5pm, 2009</abbr> :
<span class=quot;summaryquot;>An Event Apart</
span> in <span class=quot;locationquot;>Seattle,
WA</span></a>
<div class=quot;descriptionquot;>For people who
make websites.</div>
hCalendar microformat

80. microformats.org

81. Do search engines
recognize microformats?

82. Will I get a ranking boost
from validating?

83. Findable Websites Are
Successful Websites

84. Your Clients Demand It

86. Thanks
http://buildingfindablewebsites.com

87. BuildingFindableWebsites.com

89. slideshare.net/aarron
delicious.com/tag/
findabilitybliss